Riding Out the Storm
by Meister Kasper
Summary: Reverb 2016. Alternative Fairy AU w/ a splash of Romeo and Juliet themes.
1. Author's Note

YO H EY GUESS WHAT.

So this is my entry for Reverb 2016 (tumblr Soul Eater fandom even thingy). I had originally planned this to be fleshed out a lot more... but a lot of irl stuff caught up with me

(working 40 hours a week, sports, summer homework, death in the family, trying to figure out money shit... just, life...)

so I couldn't make this as up to par as my stuff normally is. Because of that I am very sorry to my partners, I did my best.

Enjoy...?


	2. And This Too---

Slender, adept fingers brushed over the shiny stones in proud awe. Two whole seasons of collecting and Soul finally had enough stones to last him through the summer and fall.

Battling through snow and the reemerging bugs had been awful but as he admired the twenty sorted cinch bags lined up on his shelves he suddenly didn't care anymore. Liz and Patty would be thrilled, especially since he wasn't going to run out of product halfway through selling season like last year.

He did a quick double check of inventory: the usual quartz glass, wood, and bone from border scavenges - nothing special, but also some turquoise, aventurine, and malachite. _Those_ had his eyes nearly glowing with pride.

Soul's workshop, a simple, small box shaped compartment nestled in the branches of a stout tree, was just far enough into the outskirts of Aerialis territory that hardly anyone ever came by.

Peaceful, secluded, safe.

The secluded fairy would often horde food and other necessary supplies to minimize the amount of times he would have to come in contact with anyone else.

Unfortunately today was the day Soul's stock of forest berries finally ran out.

He poked his head out of the workshop doorway, scowling towards the east at the bright, lush land home to his fellow Aerialis.

Encouraged by the prompting of his growling stomach, Soul let out a disgruntled sigh. Wings unfurled from between his shoulder blades with a heavy woosh - white, feathery, bird like wings.

He extended them as far as they would go, flapped once.

Such a private lifestyle meant he hardly ever left his workshop, hardly ever exercised his wings. Maybe alone they were impressive, but compared to the other Aerialis fairies Soul's wings were dull gray/white, scrawny at best.

It was five minutes by air to get to Jacqueline's.

"Thought I'd be seeing you soon," she said when he showed up at the back door of her small tree hollow.

Soul made a sound of reluctant acknowledgement.

Out of all the Aerialis Jackie was probably the least… extravagant, often in a plain dress cinched at the waist, hair in a single dark french braid, and with simple, smooth off-white wings.

Jackie was actually quite pretty, Soul thought, but not in that hypnotizing, chest aching sort of way. It was more of a _safe_ feeling.

Soul thought of the flecks of gold in Liz and Patty's feathers, and how Tsubaki's wings made his look like a plucked chicken.

"You know your brother has been asking about you," Jackie mentioned as she finished filling a burlap sack of various fruits. "Comes by almost every week. I think he's hoping he'll run into by chance."

Soul groaned. "Tell him-"

Jackie chuckled. "That you're busy?"

"Yea."

"Soul I do but it's really hard to keep asking the leader of our clan for a rain check." She handed him the bag. "For the sake of his sanity and my doorknocker please talk to him."

"Ehhhhhhhhh." Soul took the bag and began slowly edging towards the door. "Can't you just give him a couple pomegranates and tell him to check back next year?"

Jackie rolled her eyes. "I should tell him you've had a change of heart. That you're sorry you haven't been in touch, and that you've actually been considering asking him to find you a girl."

Soul's eyes widened. "You wouldn't."  
"A _Draconis_ girl. To unite the valley and all."

Soul almost dropped his bag of fruits.

She was kidding of course. Jackie wasn't really one to do something like that Liz or Patty for sure.

But as he flew away his heartbeat was in his ears. The thought of marrying _anyone_ made him want to pluck his own feathers out. But a Draconis girl?

He scoffed to himself, trying to push away the anxiety.

Maybe if he was struck by lightning.

* * *

Calloused knuckles connected with cheek and the young Draconis fairy went tumbling back. He tucked and rolled, then used the momentum to give himself a good push upwards. Tough, leathery wings opened and the fight was taken to the sky.

Mistake. Maka had always been best with her wings.

She followed the boy into the air. The currents were dull that day so speed was difficult, but with a hard enough push Maka was able to reach the boy and catch him by the ankle.

Dodge the jab. Knee to the chest. Block the kick.

A final punch to the jaw and the fight was over.

The boy fell to the ground in a daze, wings and limbs floundering as his world tilted off its axis.

Maka let herself drop and landed in a crouch next to him.

"I thought I told you to take it easy, Albarn."

"Oops," Maka gave Sid a sheepish smile as she rose, "I thought I did."

Sid rolled his eyes, but couldn't hide the smile on his face. "Walk it off," he told the boy with a firm clap on the shoulder.

"He's fast," Maka noted as she dusted off her pants. "Can I put him on Message Relay?"

Sid shrugged. "Sure. _You're_ Patrol Captain now, Maka. You make your own calls."

"Right." Maka nodded. It'd only been three days since her title upgrade, a coincidentally timed promotion with her 19th birthday last week.

Maka was thrilled about it. Her adopted brother, Black Star, was not.


	3. Hurricane

"Jackie told me Soul showed up yesterday," Liz mentioned to her sister as they walked along the territory border.

"Pssh," Patty laughed. "About time."

The Draconis-Aerlialis territory divide ran down the center of the small valley, curving around the lines of a sparkling crystal lake on the Draconis side and a forest that often seemed to glow in the sunlight on the other.

Every week the Thompson sisters would start at the forest in the south end of the territory and make their way up to the lake in the north. Sometimes they'd find small trinkets to collect,sometimes Tsubaki or Jackie would join them, sometimes they'd just talk.

They neared the lake; crystal blue, backed by misty peaks, large enough to mask the lochness monster.

Liz sighed. She'd always thought the Draconis lake was incredibly beautiful. When she and Patty were little kids they used to dream of sneaking out at night and going for a swim.

Maybe if they'd been born a hundred years earlier, they would've been able to. Liz remembered vaguely the history lessons in school. About the feud between Allister Death and Cornelius Evans that split the two clans into permanent distaste for each other.

More clearly Liz remembered the images of naive children jokingly dancing back and forth over the divide then disappearing for weeks, only to return with a little less shine in their eyes. Though only an imaginary line on the ground, the divide was strict law.

"I wish-"

"Don't, Patty."

A pause. "Please?"

Liz bit her lip, willing herself not to look at her little sister.

Patty nudged Liz's arm. "Just real quick. Just our feet. No one will know."

...Damn it. Liz didn't have to look to know her sister was staring at her with those sweet blue eyes. She fidgeted nervously. "You've got five seconds."

"WHOO HOO."

"Patty _shhh_!"

But her sister was already waist deep in the sparkling lake water, big blue eyes practically glowing.

Liz groaned in dragged her hands down her face. "Pattyyyyyy, you said just _feet_!"

But her little sister wasn't listening. Patty dunked her head beneath the surface, emerging with a laugh that Liz could only describe as pure joy.

"C'mon, big sis! It's so nice! I-"

They were interrupted with the most startling battle cry Liz had ever heard followed immediately by a massive splash and wave.

Patty shot into the air. "What the-"

Liz curled her hands into fists, summoning small tornados of air in her palms.

For a few seconds, nothing happened.

Liz and Patty exchanged confused glances.

"So uh… didn't something just…"

"THE HELL ARE YOU FLUFF BRAINS DOING IN MY LAKE?" The figure bellowed as it reemerged from the water.

Liz and Patty flinched.

The Draconis boy was young, more likely closer to Patty's age, with oddly bright blue hair. Navy blue and dark green scales covered his tanned skin in streaks along his thighs, shoulders, lower back, and face. Hovering at least twenty feet in the air his huge, well muscled wings stretched out against the backdrop of the sun.

The most horrifying part though, was the fact that he was 100% completely nude.

After recovering from the initial shock of the new fairy's entrance, Liz and Patty cringed.

"Oh my _god_ ," Liz screeched. "Where the hell are your clothes?"

Patty yelped and practically slammed her face in the water. "Put that thing _away_!"

"DO YOU KNOW YOU'RE TRESPASSING ON THE TERRITORY OF A GOD?!" the fairy continued, completely disregarding the sisters' protests.

A pause, then Patty snickered.

"A _god_? Really?" She looked him up and down. "All I see is a slimy lizard."

"OH YEAH?!"

"Yup."

The fairy tucked in his wings and dropped into the water in front of Patty. "Aw, baby bird," he crooned as he ran a hand through his wet blue hair, "You've got so many feathers up in the head you don't know a god when you see one."

He laughed obnoxiously and clapped his hand on Patty's shoulder.

Liz bristled. Patty's eyes flared.

"Patty…" Liz warned through gritted teeth. "C'mon let's just leave."

"Nah this guy's asking for it." Patty cracked her knuckles. As she rose her hands above her head, a large sphere of wind formed above her head.

"Patty, don't!"

Patty squeezed her eyes shut, honing her focus to control the orb of swirling air with only one hand while using the other to gather electricity from the sky.

"No one calls me baby bird," she growled.

The ball of wind touched the lake surface and water sprayed into the air.

Patty smirked, eyes snapping open. "I'm a mother fucking hurricane."


	4. Hail

With Spirit and the other old dude bickering over something about cutting off a toe and Wes making gross bedroom eyes at the young Draconis leader named Kid, Soul was 200% done with the so called 'meeting.'

He wandered out of the tree hollow with his hands stuffed in his pockets, eyes glued to the ground, aimlessly kicking at the strewn pebbles amongst the sparse prairie grass.

Much to his disappointment, his leisurely stroll through foreign territory became quite uncomfortable. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and his fingers began to twitch. Every Draconis fairy had their eyes locked onto him and Soul wanted to crawl out of his skin.

Stupid Wes.

 _Come to the meeting,_ he said. _You're always in that stuffy workshop,_ he said. _It'll be good for you,_ he said.

Oh but of course, Wes. Come hang out in a place where all of the most lethal fairies in existence want to rip off your wings. Totally better than staying in a safe, secluded workshop where the sharpest things are the magma crystals he found at the base of the mountain the other week.

Soul tucked his wings as close as he could against his back. Amongst all the scales and piercing eyes he felt like fresh meat, like a dumb bird that'd wandered into a pit of hungry reptiles.

Time to go home.

He turned east towards the border just in time to get slammed in the chest by what felt like a frickin boulder.

Behind horrible the pain of getting the wind knocked out of him Soul silently cursed his big brother.

He caught at least three feet of air before landing hard on his ass, limbs flailing, tumbling across the field.

Soul clumsily rolled onto his hands and knees, coughing and sputtering into the ground.

"What the fu-" Strong hands grabbed his collar and yanked him to his feet.

It was… a girl.

A Draconis girl. Bright orange and emerald scales streaked across tanned skin and her fiery green eyes bore into his with such enraged heat that Soul thought he might melt. Her wings were almost black, sharp, angled, with shiny horns that stuck out at the tips. And damn, the way she'd shoved him and how she was holding him now, she was _strong._ With that snarl on her face the Draconis girl looked like a nightmare.

She hissed, face inches away from his. "The hell are you doing here, _tweety bird_."

Soul forgot how to speak for at least ten seconds. She may have looked like a nightmare but damn it she was gorgeous.

He was snapped out of his trance when she straight sucker punched him.

"MAKA!"

Soul groaned and curled up on the ground with his bleeding nose in his hands.

" _Enough,_ Maka," the same voice ordered.

He vaguely recognized the voice behind his throbbing skull. The Draconis leader. Soul almost whimpered in relief.

The next voice was a lot less appreciated. "Watcha been up to, little brother?"

"Oh screw you," Soul mumbled his hands.

Wes chuckled and grabbed him by the arm, hauling him up to his feet while Soul mumbled a slew of rather colorful insults.

"This is a clear violation of the clan boundaries," Maka hissed. Tiny - dangerous - fists raised, she lunged at Soul a second time.

"There are exceptions to the boundary restrictions when the purposes are diplomatic," Kid warned, holding his arm out in front of Maka. "And anyway it is wise not to punch the Aerialis leader's younger brother."

Maka scowled.

"Are you alright?" Kid addressed Soul.

In all honesty his ribs and nose were throbbing like hell, but for the sake of his dignity - whatever there was left - Soul nodded, looked away, and mumbled, "Yeah."

"Oh he'll be fine," Wes added with a clap on the shoulder. "Sorry for the trouble."

Kid nodded his goodbye and turned to leave.

"Motherfucker," Soul moaned as they walked, gingerly touching the bridge of his bruising nose. "This is all your fault. I think she broke my face. I think I'm dying."

Wes laughed and wrapped his arm around his brother's neck. "Not my fault you have a death wish."

"I do _not_ I was just taking a freaking _walk_ ," Soul argued as they trudged back to Aerialis territory. The weight of his annoyance was lost behind a swollen nose and consequently nasally voice.

"And decided to piss off the head of the defense unit," Wes snickered. "By the way, next time try not to stare so much."

"I didn't piss her off I was minding my own business when she _body slammed me_ ," Soul snapped. "My toe is bleeding… And I sure as hell was _not_ staring."

Wes just laughed harder.

* * *

 _(The Next Day…)_

Maka sat quietly as the meeting continued, but under the small oak table her foot tapped impatiently.

There was this weird tension between Wes and Kid that kept them from exchanging more than a few overly polite sentences at a time. Over three hours into their second meeting and all they'd decided on was Black Star and Patty's punishment: suspension from the patrol unit and revocation of magic privileges.

Currently they were trying to sort out how to deal with the made homeless Draconis.

"It will take at least two months to rebuild them all," Maka's old school teacher, Professor Stein, pointed out. "Temperatures will start dropping in a few weeks. The Draconis are not made to deal with that sort of cold without shelter." He pushed up his silver rimmed glasses. "It would of course, speed up the process if we had some outside help."

"But we need all of our people for pre-winter harvest," the Aerialis with fiery red hair put in. "Our stock is already low as is. Unfortunately I don't think we can spare any workers, as much as I'd like to help." He tried to make eye contact with Maka for at least the hundredth time.

Maka examined her fingernails.

Professor Stein leaned forward. "But don't you think the Aerialis have some responsibility in helping with the repairs? Both sides did have a part in this."

The blonde Aerialis girl sitting across from Maka - named as Patty's older sister, Liz - deepened her already permanent glare. The feather's on her wings ruffled.

"Actually I believe the report was that it was just one girl," Kid commented. Maka noticed the strain in his jaw as he scrambled to maintain some diplomacy. "Perhaps Spirit is right in that it would be just as harmful to pull the Aerialis away from their preparations."

"But it's also unsafe to leave the Draconis without shelter as the weather changes," Wes added.

Strange, the way Kid and Wes would keep defending each other's side, like there was some sort of hidden concern for each other. But if Maka remembered history class correctly the Death and Evans families had extremely strained relations, to say the least.

Maka sighed. She needed some air.

"May I be excused?" she asked politely. "I have to check up on the evening patrol."

Kid and Wes both motioned for her permission in unintentional unison. Spirit gave one last feeble attempt at getting any sort of acknowledgement from her with a hesitant, "Goodbye."

Though she barely had a chance to breathe before someone stopped her.

" _Hey._ "

Maka turned to see the boy from yesterday - Soul - standing with his arms crossed and a scowl across his face. Though after they made eye contact his gaze softened into more of a hesitant pout. She noted the bruise on his nose from the… incident... yesterday.

"Hey," she answered back evenly.

Trying to reestablish his machismo Soul stuck his chin in the air and stared down at the shorter fairy. "You've got some nerve, you… you _lizard face_."

Maka suppressed a laugh.

Soul blushed furiously but continued. "You _broke_ my nose."

"Whoa, woah I did NOT," Maka protested.

"Well okay whatever, you _almost_ broke my nose. But what's the big idea of you and your friends breaking into my stuff!?"

"Wait _what_?"

"I mean I can suffer through a broken nose but do you have any idea how valuable all the shit that you guys stole is?!"

Suddenly angry, Maka shoved him in the chest. "Hey, _listen_ , tweety bird," she hissed, glaring up at the taller boy with narrowed eyes, "I didn't do _anything_ to your shit. Besides what makes you think it was me?"

Soul seemed to shrink a bit at her sudden assertiveness. "You attacked me yesterday for no good reason!"

"You were trespassing, that's a perfectly good reason!" Maka argued.

Soul groaned, raked his fingers through his hair. "Just… just come with me."

Though she didn't necessarily like the idea of spending time with an Aerialis, Maka complied, albeit begrudgingly. She was actually curious abut what this guy was going on about.

Soul led her through the unfamiliar territory. Every inch was completely covered in lush green grass with tiny flowers dotting the ground like freckles. Maka felt almost self conscious, stamping through the field in her chunky boots.

No wonder the Aerialis never wore shoes.

They finally stopped at the base of a small, sturdy tree. It was near the north end of the border, almost at the base of the Draconis mountains and practically overlooking the crystal lake.

"Look!" Soul pointed up in the branches, eyebrows scrunched together.

"Hm. You need a new door," Maka noted.

"Draconis fairies raided my workshop last night," Soul fumed. "Smashed a bunch of tools and took _all_ of the stones and gems I had saved up since last winter. Do you know how _hard_ it is to save up 105 sapphire shards?"

Maka blinked.

"Ugh." Soul dragged his hands down his face. "You don't understand." He waved his hand and produced a short gust of wind, then unfurled his wings and rode the artificial breeze up to a small platform in the tree branches.

Maka's eyes widened, taken aback by the sudden reveal. You could tell a lot from a fairy's wings.

Soul's were off white - like his hair - but not in a dirty water sort of way. They were more like… like, the pale stones scattered at the base of the valley mountains. They weren't overly full, but they weren't skeleton thin either. They were slender, sharp.

A strong gust of wind slapped Maka in the face.

Her face scrunched together. "Hey!"

"Well I _told_ you to follow me," Soul said, annoyed.

Maka rolled her eyes.

" _Look_ ," Soul said when she joined him. The bracelets on his arms clanged together as he waved his arms around in frustration. "Everything is _gone_!"

Maka stepped slowly through the door to the workshop, blinking a few times to adjust her vision to the dimly lit room.

The floor was littered with stray beads and string, metal clasps, small pliers, other tools, a broken wooden chair and desk. A short lamp lay shattered amongst the wood splinters and debris. She bent over to pick up a would've been necklace snapped in half.

Well… it wasn't like a Draconis to do things half assed.

Maka did feel bad though. Really bad. She thought he was joking, over exaggerating, but he was right. There literally was nothing left. All that plus the pure _anguish_ in Soul's eyes as he joined her in surveying the damage filled Maka's guilt to the brim.

"Ohhhhhh wow gosh, uhm, I'm sorry." She turned around to face the Aerialis making another rather endearing pout. "I'm going to find out who did this, okay?" Maka put her hand on his shoulder, genuinely feeling bad about the amount of damage her people did. "This whole thing is getting way out of control."

Soul seemed to freeze at her touch. "Uhm… it's okay," he stuttered.

"What's your favorite color?" Maka asked

"Uh."

She grabbed his wrists and held the swinging bracelets up to the light. "Black? I might be able to find some black stones around where I live."

"Uh, nooo that's okay." Soul avoided her gaze. Even in the minimal lighting his blush was apparent - something that made Maka panic ever so slightly, though she shoved that thought in the back of her head.

"No no I'll make it up to you, I promise," Maka insisted. "But I do actually have to go now. Patrol checkins, ya know. I'm sorry. I'll see you later, okay?"

"Uh, yeah, okay."

"Bye, Soul!"

Unknown to Maka as she flew away, Soul's heart was hammering in his chest and the skin where she touched him was searing.

She did, however, hear Soul's cry of protest when Wes revealed himself to have been waiting on the ground for him during the last few minutes of their conversation.

Said he had needed to talk to his little brother.

Said he wasn't eavesdropping.


End file.
